History for Days

I hate blogging from my phone. But we conquered the metro in D.C. today and I feel compelled to share our triumph.

We decided a few months ago to take Will to Washington D.C. as kind of a senior trip thing. And no, our other kids did not get a senior trip. Sometimes, life is not fair.

Anyway, so here we are, staying in Arlington, VA and seeing the sights.   We flew in to Baltimore on a red eye and landed about five this morning. Today we went to Arlington National Cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial, did a walk by of the Washington monument, and as I mentioned, managed to get ourselves to as Lloyd those places and back to our hotel room on the metro. No small feat. We had help from a saint named Allison who is an attorney here that we met at the train station. A few other friendly souls took pity on us along the way as well. 

I'm snapping a few pics along the way, and Dan brought the big guns camera as well. It will be a well documented trip.

No Restraints

Today was a memorable today to say the least.

The burning question of the day was how much chocolate does it take to kill a dog? And the answer is a lot. Apparently much more than is contained in 12 no bake cookies and 36 mini cadbury eggs, which is how much chocolate my damn dog got this morning when she climbed up on the table, tore apart a styrofoam container and devoured all of these adorable bird nest cookies I had loving made the night before for my neighbor.

That dog is lucky it was Audrey that discovered her handiwork and not me. She is lucky I was at work and not at home to ring her neck. When Audrey called me with the awful news, I confess that I really hoped that all that chocolate she ate would lead to her slow, agonizing, painful death by chocolate. She never even threw up, although Audrey said she looked sick. Serves her right. I  hope she was miserable all day.  I wanted to come home and knock her silly and demand to know what she was thinking. She knows better than that, I know she does.

I immediately texted Dan to tell him what had happened. His response amused me. I keep him around because he makes me laugh.

Tonight, the dog of the iron stomach is just fine. I'm still not talking to her though.

As if that was not enough excitement for one day, Audrey got her driver's license! Dan got to take her this afternoon while I was at work.

And then, almost immediately after, she drove herself to her first day at her new job! It's like overnight she is a full on sixteen year old.

Today, March 25, is also the 16th anniversary of the day she was due to be born. She must be destined for big things on this day. I sure do love that girl.

Hand Over the Peeps and Nobody Gets Hurt

Let's just be honest here: In spite of my best efforts to maintain my new and hard won eating habits, I have fallen off the wagon of health.  Well, no it's more like I have cannonballed off that wagon and landed none too gracefully in a soothing sea of Easter candy.  Did you know that if you get the words "it's more" spaced out wrong, it becomes "it s'more" ? S'mores are good, and it's almost campfire season!

Moderation? What's that?  I was just going to buy a few sweet things for Easter baskets, but there were sales and stuff, and now, you know, a lot of it just ended up in my mouth. Especially those yellow peeps. They get a bad rap, but they are so my favorite. So if the Easter Bunny fills your basket with Peeps this year, and you don't know what to do with them, send them my way.  I'll take good care of them. Even if they are last year's peeps, I'll still eat them. I think they get better with age. There is so much sugar in there, I bet they stay good indefinitely. They just get chewier.

I'm so glad I'm not addicted to anything harder than sugar. If I was a smoker or an alcoholic or a meth head, I'd be in big trouble. There are some things that just seem to make life worth living sometimes, and fortunately for  me those things are oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and diet coke. And Peeps. All legal substances, and nothing my bishop will concern himself with. I can take a month without those things, but the rest of my life without them would be daunting. So to any recovering addicts of Peeps or anything else, who happen to stumble upon this blog, I salute you! You are my inspiration.

P.S. It's only Easter Peeps. Do not send me Christmas Peeps, Halloween Peeps or Valentines Peeps. Those things are disgusting.

Oh Sweet Sausage

This is our breakfast of choice today, and of late, compliments of the Whole 30 website:

1 diced sweet potato
2 tsp coconut oil ( or any oil really, olive works great too)
1 sweet onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 avocado, sliced
1/2 lb cooked sausage
1-2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1//2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cumin

Saute sweet potato in oil for 5-7 minutes. Add spices, onion, and red pepper, and saute about 5 more minutes, then cover and cook til sweet potato is tender, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add sausage and heat through. Top with sliced avocado and serve.
- We also have added spinach and mushrooms, and it's the best breakfast ever! Seriously, it will make your week.

Growing Like Weeds

Be still my heart, Olivia had her first babysitting job tonight. Granted, she was across the street, it was only for thirty minutes, and the kid was asleep the entire time, but still. My baby was in charge of another human being! I started babysitting at the age of nine, and all my older kids have been babysitting each other since they could dial 911, but it never really occurred to me that Olivia is getting to that babysitting age. She was pretty thrilled with the idea, and now that she is experienced and all, she will probably be raising her rates. Since she made nothing tonight (I told her it was a service project), she will probably still be pretty affordable.

Another reality check into the passage of time: I ordered Will's cap and gown today. In true Will fashion, I found the order form from the school a few days ago, laying on the counter, saying that we had to order everything by March 1st.  I have no idea where it came from, or how long it had been there, but I am assuming he got it sometime prior to March 1.  In true me fashion, I figured that order deadline was just a scare tactic, and put off ordering for a few more days. Then today, I panicked and hopped on the website. Nothing flashed or blew up or dinged me when I put my order through, and they were very willing to take my payment, so I'm guessing we are all good. Guess we will find out soon enough. Anyhow, I think I still have Duncan's graduation gown kicking around somewhere.

And yet more news: Audrey got a job today! She is the newest front desk person at the funplex. The good part is they are closed on Sundays. The bad part is they are open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Her friend is going to work there as well though, and it is right next door to Will's job, so hopefully we can do some carpooling. She will be getting her driver's license in the next few days too, so look out world. She is gonna be unstoppable now.

Wednesday Wranglings

It's Wednesday again. It seems like it is always Wednesday. I have a day off today, which means it is the day I stay home and let the dog and cats out and in and out all day long.  The dog goes out, and tramples the cats as they hover near the door waiting to get in. Then the dog realizes the cats are in so she barks to come back in. Then I get sick of all these cats laying around my house so I throw them all out. Next thing I know the dog  is begging  to go out so she can bark at the neighbor. When I let her out, the cats all come stampeding in again.  I don't know how they all survive on the days they are home alone. In addition to attending to the needs of my furry children today, I plan on throwing away a few things so that I can say I did my spring cleaning. Duncan is home today as well. He has a break from the mill because there is a devotional and dinner tonight.

Olivia went back to school on Monday after a three week break, so it is adjustment week around here. Then again, with year round school, it seems we are always in adjustment mode. We got the calendar for next school year, and the school gods have been merciful and granted us a full three weeks off in July! Woo hoo! We must be living right. She gets out July 1 and starts sixth grade on July 26. That is like a third of a real summer!

I can't believe that I will only have two kids left in school next year. I could really get ahead of myself and think ahead to the next year, when I will be done forever as the parent of an elementary school aged child. But I don't want to go there yet. Olivia in junior high is a thought I am just not ready to entertain yet. Life is moving way too fast.

She got up late this morning, and as we were getting ready to run out the door, she announced it was class picture day. Her hair was a bit wild, and I attempted to tame it, but she was having nothing to do with that. It's only class pictures after all, she informed me. So I backed off and let her go with her crazy hair. Then she forgot her picture money anyway, so oh well. Maybe we will get a year book instead.

Stuff I Just Can't Believe

We finished our Whole 30 just in time for Audrey to have a birthday and get a life. Next week she gets her drivers' license.  I just want somebody to tell me where my baby went.

I have written two long blog posts about our whole 30 experiment, and I hate both of them. Suffice it to say that I hated whole 30 for 29 days. On the evening of the 29th day, I realized suddenly that my cravings were gone. Vamoosed. I didn't need or want anything treaty in my mouth.  Two days later was Audrey's birthday and we gorged ourselves on cake and ice cream and pasta and cheese, and I felt so sick that night.  In my agony, I vowed to keep up my new habits, and stop randomly putting crap in my mouth. I worked hard to get rid of those cravings, and I want them to stay gone.I can't believe that I made it thirty days without any sugar, caffeine or flour. I can't believe it took me 29 stinking days to stop craving all the junk. I can't believe I ate so terribly my second day off the diet. I can't believe I had a diet coke yesterday and didn't even like it. I just don't know WHAT to believe anymore. Oh, and I lost seven pounds. If it isn't obvious, I'm a little conflicted over the whole thing.

Olivia is having a sleep over tonight. I can hear her and her friends in her bedroom, belting out "I wanna know what love is...." and then one of them said, "You have no idea what love is!"  Friday night entertainment, just across the hall.

Audrey's birthday celebrations continue tomorrow with Waffle Wars. She is having a waffle making party in our basement. I will be upstairs, probably making waffles for everyone and having angst over whether I should eat one or not. Which reminds me of pancakes. We made green smoothie pancakes on St. Patrick's Day, and they were so good. Spinach, eggs, flax, banana, and a little flour and baking soda, served with runny frozen strawberry jam.  Who knew spinach could make a pancake green?